Jamaica to Panama

It took us three more days after reading the news of John to muster
the guts to make a run at the sail to Panama.

We pulled out Monday March 3rd morning at about 5am. The weather
looked good,
15 knots from the NE and forecast to drop as we get closer to
Panama. Crap
thing was it was raining and it's no fun leaving at 5am in the
rain - but we did.

We had about 25 miles of solid upwind sailing to get around the
eastern point of the island, once we were there we would be able to
run off and make the trip on a beam reach.

As the morning was less than pleasant, rain, up wind slog, still the
lingering feeling of John. We both decided to make a stop on the way
south.

About 35 miles south of the corner of Jamaica is a small ( VERY
SMALL)
sandy cay and a few reefs called the Morant Cays.

With the wind and swell direction we figured that we could make a
stop here for the night, anchor in the calm lee side of the sand
bank and reef and have a nice first night out.

We arrived in the Morant Cays about 3pm. Not much there, two big
sand
banks, and a reef. Not an ounce of vegetation. But to our
amazement
there were people living on the sand bank!! Only three ( fisherman)
god knows how they do it. The sand bank would be 200m long and maybe
50m wide!!

We motor around looking for a spot to drop the anchor. It's still a
bit lumpy as the sea is managing to get over the reefs and is
curling around the "anchorage". We drop the hook in about 4m of
very clear water. It takes a LONG time for us to get the anchor set,
lots of noise coming up the chain meaning that there is a lot of
rock / coral down there, finally it sets.

Jason decides it may be worth jumping in the water and having a look
at the anchor to make sure it's hooked in ok - last thing we want to
do
is drag in the middle of the night!

Getting down to the anchor he finds it lying upside down just
holding on... have to do something here...
So with Jo on the boat driving the boat forward to take the load off
the anchor, Jason is walking the seabed with a 30kg anchor in his
arms over to a big rock that he can hook it under. Would have looked
quite odd seeing someone walking barefoot holding their breath with
a big anchor in their arms.

But job done and we are hooked in well for the night.

After sorting the boat out one of the fisherman comes up in his
little boat and asks if everything is ok!, lovely guy he seemed
concerned for us which was really nice. Wish we had some cigarettes
to give him (they all like to smoke over here).
He is on his way and we settle in for a few episodes of Seinfeld,
early dinner and sleep!

Next morning the wind and sea looks a little more friendly, we make
a move around the civilized hour of 9am!, (after a coffee and
breakfast of course).

It was a little troublesome getting the anchor out of the rock as it
was well jammed under, but after a few goes - left then right we
were
free and on the way to Panama.

Day 2:

Well so far (knock on wood) we couldn't have asked for better
conditions, the sea state is very mild, the wind is around 15-20
knots and we are averaging around 8 knots. No squalls, and so far no
kookey seas.

Coming down this part of the Caribbean you need to think of the
shoals, the shallow patches of water. Now when we say shallow here
we don't mean 3-4 meters, we mean 300-400 meters of water.

There is a current running here of about 1 knot to the west, the
average depth we are sailing is around 3000m (3 km!) so when you
have a "shoal" of 300 meters rising up from 3000m there is a lot of
water that has to go somewhere and it usually goes into waves and
current in other directions. So as we are sailing we are zig zaging
down to avoid running directly over the shallow areas.

Just passing one now (in the next two hours) it is 387m coming up
from 2917m! We are in the deep areas and hopefully we will find a
nice bit of zooming current being deflected from it. Yesterday we
were moving over the ground at close to 10 knots, but only through
the water at 7!. as we skipped off the edge of another "shallow"
area. It was really neat looking at the GPS with 9+ knots on it and
the water around the boat barely moving.

At the current rate we should hit Panama in about 24 hrs ( at midday
Friday 7th March).

Day 3: 5:00pm March 6th.

Well we didn't pick any favorable current as we passed the sea
mounts. Actually a small counter current, about 1/2 Knot.

Getting MUCH warmer in the boat than in Jamaica, currently 30 deg C!
inside - Air con would be nice.
Wind and seas are much the same, 15 knots and quite calm seas!!
Starting to see some more ships as we get closer to the
entrance of the Canal.

So far we have totally lucked it with the weather, the wind has been
so light that we've even had to turn on the engine a few times.
Looks like
it'll be a squall free evening as there is not a cloud in sight out
in front. We settle down to our last dinner under way and then get
into our last night of night watches...YAY!!!

Day 4: 4:30pm March 7th.

Last night was A VERY calm and beautiful night!

Still haven't hooked any fish and we have just started to enter
shallower water as we approach the Canal wall, we've got an hour and
a bit to go. Just had a big strike, but the poor fish got away
leaving only his lips and a few teeth behind...
Overall it's been a great passage with light winds and VERY calm
seas, so not what we were expecting, we fluked the weather this time
once more! (Last time coming down to Panama in 2005 it was just as
calm).

Gotta run, the entrance is approaching......and there are BIG ships
anchored off everywhere, looks like we'll have to dodge our way in!

Cheers
J&J